It is so loud in here, I can’t hear myself drink

October 15, 2010 in wine culture with 4 Comments

 

Interesting research reported on the BBC today:

The level of background noise affects both the intensity of flavour and the perceived crunchiness of foods, researchers have found.

It also makes me wonder about wines. We’ve known for a while that wines don’t taste the same in the air, and I seem to recall it was assumed it had to do with air pressure, but noise also makes sense. If any of your senses is being overwhelmed, then the others will naturally be affected.

I happened to run a dB meter on a recent plane trip (“there’s an app for that”) and it registered over 90dB – that’s as loud as a petrol lawnmower … and you sit in it for hours!

On the other hand, the research also seems to point to positive aspects – where pleasant sounds increase the intensity of flavours, which is backed by anecdotal evidence of “great wine moments” you have on holiday or with a great dinner partner.

Also in the group’s findings there is the suggestion that the overall satisfaction with the food aligned with the degree to which diners liked what they were hearing – a finding the researchers are pursuing in further experiments.

It seems that we have, at least partially, now got evidence that wine drinking is a pleasure that requires all your senses, not just taste!

Certainly, airplanes are not ideal wine tasting locations for many reasons, but there’s always a good reason to keep testing!

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About Robert: Robert McIntosh is a wine blogger and online communicator on WineConversation.com, a prolific twitterer (@thirstforwine) and an occasional contributor to wine magazines as well as speaking at wine events. Robert is co-organiser of the annual European Wine Bloggers Conference and Born Digital Wine Awards, promotes international online wine communication, and advises companies about how to engage through social media. Robert also has some trouble communicating in the third person.

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  • http://voipusersconference.org randulo

    Robert, this may even give weight to an argument I’ve repeatedly encountered about listening to jazz while drinking wine. Unless music is to be used as wallpaper or the wine is mundane, you are listening to it or tasting wine, not both.
    As for air travel, once I was bumped to 1st class and they served aged port. It tasted like the stuff you buy in pints for cooking! Serving fine wine on intercontinental flights may bring joy to some, but I’ll bet they’re not true wine lovers.

    • http://thirstforwine.co.uk thirstforwine

      I know that some real wine experts are involved in selecting wines for airlines, and I believe they have tended to err towards fruitier, less tannic wines … addressing exactly the same issues as mentioned regarding food.

      It would be great to find a way to reduce in-cabin noise though – and not just for wine & food enjoyment

  • http://www.winetravelmedia.com/about Wink Lorch

    Many years ago, I had a weird experience as part of team tasting wines for a large new wine shop in London. We were tasting downstairs in a small tasting room with the door shut to keep out the dust and disturbances, while the shop was being fitted upstairs. Depending what the workmen were doing, the noise did of course get through. On one particular day – I cannot remember what we were tasting – I had the oddest sensation after going through a few of the wines in the lineup… I couldn’t smell or taste anything except the sound of drilling. I honestly cannot describe that feeling any other way, but it felt real at the time. It’s good to see my theory proven.

    • http://thirstforwine.co.uk thirstforwine

      very interesting indeed – I feel an experiment with headphones coming on! (and a glass of wine or two)